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Comment: Must we suffer a repeat of Custom House horror show?

R
egulators usually need to see blood on the carpet to prod them into action. With the stain left behind by the investment scandal at Custom House Capital now exceeding €90m, it will be interesting to see what steps they take to ensure that it never happens again.

A good place to start would be the murky world of exempt unit trusts (EUTs). They are not regulated because in theory they are closed to investment from the public. So how did €37m of client money at Custom House Capital end up in EUTs before it disappeared?

The answer is based on a legal nonsense that says these individuals did not invest in EUTs — their pension funds did. The funds were regulated by the Pensions Board. Custom House Capital was regulated by the Central Bank. Any money invested by clients in their pensions, though, dropped through a trap door into an unpoliced